He needs a machine to help his breathing for 16 hours a day.

He's had open heart surgery twice and suffered a heart attack.

But the battling 74-year-old plays bowls, goes sea fishing and is even planning a trip to an ice cream factory.

MARK PAYNE met him.

MITRAL stenosis is a bit of a mouthful.

Terry Young first discovered he had it when he was about 18.

He went to see his doctor for a check-up before joining the Army. He was expecting to be passed A1 fit. But the 74-year-old recalls: "Within a fortnight he had me in hospital doing tests and they have been keeping an eye on me ever since.

In everyday language, Mitral stenosis is the narrowing of a valve in the heart.

"It has gradually got worse and worse over the years till I can't walk very far", said Terry.

"After about ten or 20 yards I have to stop for a breather."
But he does not let it get him down.

He enjoys sea fishing and has been a valued member of the Headland Moor Bowls Club for around 10 years. A cabinet crammed with trophies testifies how good he is.

Today, he has to breathe pure oxygen from a machine.

He has been married to Jean for almost 50 years. He never lets his condition stop him from living his life.

Although he can't walk very far because of his condition, he has motorised and fold- up wheelchairs to get around.

Terry, of Moor Parade, on the Headland, in Hartlepool, said: "I feel as good as anybody else, except when I go for a walk and I start panting.

But as soon as I get back and sit down for a while I am hunky dory.

"I've tried never to let it stop me from doing anything. But as I have got older I have gradually stopped doing some of the things I used to."

Terry is a regular member of the Heart Health Group – a band of positive minded friends who have all faced life or death situations and come out the other side to tell the story.

Members meet fortnightly at Hartlepool Central Library.

They are planning visits abroad, Christmas shopping trips and local tours including breweries, cheese makers and an ice cream factory.

"It is interesting", says Terry. "You get to know other people in the same condition as you and get to talk about all sorts of issues that affect us.

"When I first went there was only about five or six people and it has gradually built up where we get more every couple of weeks."

He and his wife Jean, 66, moved to Hartlepool around 20 years ago after living in Newton Aycliffe.

"I've always wanted to live by the sea and you can't get nearer to where I live now," said Terry looking out at the waves just yards from his front window.

They have six children, including four sons and two daughters, and more than a dozen grandchildren.

Over the years Terry worked in a range of different jobs including a kitchen porter, night watchman and in factories before his heart condition forced him to retire early in his mid 50s.

"I lived where I could find work and worked where I could find somewhere to live," he said.

The Birmingham-born battler was one of the first people in the country to undergo open heart surgery to try and ease his condition.

Still in its infancy, the procedure at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in his home city was much riskier than it is today as surgeons broke new medical ground.

He underwent a similar operation at Newcastle's Freeman's Hospital in the 1980s.

Then two years ago, he suffered a heart attack and contracted pneumonia. He was laid up in hospital for a week.

But even that does not get him down. "I have had heart trouble ever since I was a teenager", he says.

"I just try and get on with things as best I can."